Kingston Civic Commentary

Category Archives: Limestone District School Board

The second full meeting of the new council was short and uneventful. The bylaws item before adjournment was at 8:17 p.m. and as the mayor said this is a great way to start the new year- not that this is within his control. Missing were briefings and more presentations and consider recommendations from the C.E.O. Also not on the agenda were controversial motions and new business. This will all come, as this Council Is no more together than the last one. Mind you, the meeting was longer than it might have been because of the very lengthy presentations for inductees into the 2015 Sports Hall of Fame. The mayor should have asked Council for permission to extend the presentation beyond the 5 minutes allotted for it. The extra-long bios of the inductees took much more than 5 minutes. Does this mean that the new mayor will in future ignore the procedural bylaw that gives 5 minutes for presentations He might have dealt with this before the meeting? We will see in the future. Presentations and delegations are 5 minutes, briefings ae supposed to be 10 unless lengthened.

The most interesting part of the meeting was a motion by Neill and Holland to use local musicians and their music as background for call waiting and at Public Municipal Properties. (I guess that means rinks). This is what Ottawa now does and although it has a myriad of technical difficulties, passed unanimously. Holland spoke eloquently about what we have to gain by recognizing musicians-national and international recognition that local musicians will be encouraged. All look forward to the staff report. Envy staff having to wade through the logistical issues.. What he doesn’t want – the mover is a bunch of phone calls from musicians saying that their music is not being played enough or at all.

A new Council may review any matter decided by a previous council provided contractual…no one did. Will be for intensification or neighbourhoods? There is little to indicate how this Council stands on issues.

Jason here. Just when you expect to hear something – it doesn’t happen. NOTHING, was said about the $35,000,000 the province will provide for a new secondary school. Jason expected to have Council reiterate, or not, that the Memorial Centre was NOT available. Nothing of the sort occurred. Perhaps it is too soon, after MPP Gerretsen’s announcement. Perhaps we can expect it at the next meeting. It has been said before, but the talker (Councillor Neill) certainly would not let that deter him.

What we did hear was a lot about the potential neurological effects of cell phone towers. Cell phone towers are a federal responsibility and it is hard to imagine a situation in which the municipality would have no input. But this is the case here. The Council chambers were full of, I assume, Calvin park residents who thought that the tower was too close to schools. And they are correct. The question was put to staff, to survey other municipalities, to see what, if anything could be done. An interesting aspect this question was the assertion that Guelph and Oakville had put a moratorium on such towers. The mayor explained that this was not the case (he must have checked). Those cities might want to place a moratorium, but they have no power to do so. This is an issue that will not go away. The city has to, and will, produce a cell tower policy. It, of course, will satisfy no one.

On the technological front, Council agreed with a staff recommendation to allow Dominion Voting Systems to provide, for the 2014 municipal election, with the possibility of using the same system in 2018 (telephone and internet voting) for the advance poll. This is an interesting move – and a small one – into on-line voting – voting should lend itself to the internet, but a risk free system has not yet been devised. Councillor Schell asked if there will be a phone number for those having trouble with the system. Yes, there will, and I bet it will be used a lot! Jason promises to test it.